Remember Remember the 5th of November. On that date almost 420 years ago, a group of political extremists tried to blow up England’s parliament and everyone in it. But, now in the 25th year of the 21st century, the 5th day of November has an even more serious and extreme connotation.
For that was the date last year that America’s electorate, albeit mostly unwittingly, opted, in effect, to dynamite our world.
It was on that fateful day that Donald Trump was elected as US President – and it was the decisions taken by 77 million American Trump-supporting voters on that day that are likely to affect life on earth for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years to come.
As a journalist, my specialism over the past several decades has been history (especially long-term historical processes) and I fear that the 5 November, 2024 will ultimately be seen as one of the most significant and terrible dates in world history, potentially the most significant and the most terrible in recent millennia.
That’s because the new US president, elected on that fateful day, has made it clear that he is committed to doing three things:
- Destroying humanity’s efforts to stop global warming.
- Destroying the post-World-War-Two rules-based international order, which has helped prevent nuclear world wars breaking out for the past 80 years.
- Helping to initiate a new very dangerous age of imperial expansion.
His intended destruction of international efforts to slow down and then stop climate change is likely to sentence literally billions of people in this and subsequent centuries to terrible suffering.
And his intended destruction of the rules-based international system and the rule of law (and his imperial territorial expansion ambitions) will almost certainly lead to an substantial increase in nuclear proliferation and a consequent increased risk of nuclear conflict.
Together with Russia’s President Putin, Trump threatens the stability of our world.
The European Union
The only potential democratic entity on Earth which might ultimately be able to act as an effective counterweight to Trumpite America and Putin’s Russia is the European Union.
But the EU has anti-democratic insurgents of its own (in Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and elsewhere) and its long-term strength and stability may well also have been compromised by Britain’s departure following the Brexit referendum of 2016.
So, the only way in which we in Britain can help defeat the twin threats from Trump and Putin is by persuading our politicians as to the crucial geopolitical necessity of us joining forces with the rest of our continent by rapidly re-entering the Single Market and the Customs Union and by ultimately re-joining the European Union.
Up till now, remainers/rejoiners have wanted to re-establish our relationship with the EU because of a wish to be part of a continent-wide project and identity. But now there is an even bigger reason why we should rejoin European institutions. That’s because rejoining them may be one of the few ways in which we can sufficiently strengthen our continent so that it can stand a better chance of preventing Trump and Putin sabotaging our planet’s future.
Although the USA and Russia have often been political adversaries, their leaders now have much in common – and that tragic fact is a direct threat to European and global stability and security:
Both Trump and Putin clearly have a territorial expansion agenda (Trump in Panama, Greenland and potentially Canada – and Putin in Ukraine and potentially elsewhere).
Both want to carve out their respective spheres of influence and control (Trump throughout the Americas – and Putin throughout the former Soviet Union and potentially in eastern parts of the EU).
Both are willing to use military force to achieve their objectives (Trump has threatened to do so in Panama and Greenland – and Putin’s forces and proxies currently occupy parts of Georgia, Moldova and of course Ukraine).
Both Trump and Putin loath the European Union – and both love Brexit.
Both give direct and indirect support to the extreme right within the EU and elsewhere.
Both have scant regard for the rule of law and any form of rules-based international order.
Both are socially very conservative (especially in terms of gender-related and other human rights).
Both leaders are also bad news from a climate change perspective (Trump has a visceral dislike of wind power and has just walked out of the Paris climate agreement – and Putin has, in practical terms, proved lukewarm about cutting carbon emissions).
Only by strengthening Europe, can an effective counterbalance to the destructive and dangerous extreme right-wing ideologies of Trump and Putin be developed.
With our planet facing horrific climate change – and with democracy and the rule of law under ever greater threat from Trump, Putin and others, Europe will need to assume an even more crucial geopolitical importance than it does already.
And Britain needs to be at the heart of our continent’s crucial potential new role.
Our country’s pro-Europe movements must therefore redouble their efforts and further develop their strategies to rapidly and much more robustly campaign to persuade our government to meaningfully and rapidly step up to the plate.
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